As president of Artists Alive and Well, Suzanne Buckland seeks to help members learn the business side of being an artist. She specializes in oil paintings, above and below right. The group is staging a juried exhibit at 1600 Smith St.

Photo: Thomas Nguyen, Freelance

As president of Artists Alive and Well, Suzanne Buckland seeks to...

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Suzanne Buckland, Artist Alive and Well group president with her artworks. Photo by Thomas Nguyen.

When Linda Summers Posey started looking a few years ago for groups to help her grow as an artist, she repeatedly encountered what she called a "poor starving artist mindset."

From her point of view, the people she encountered seemed resigned to struggling financially for their art.

It was that experience that led her in 2007 to establish the nonprofit organization Artists Alive and Well.

The organization doesn't focus so much on artistic skills. Its emphasis is on encouraging artists and helping them build careers. Speaker topics range from tax tips and legal considerations for artists to lining up gallery showings.

"We are emerging artists learning to be professional artists," said Daniel Brents, a board member and former president of the group. "It's not immediately apparent how to do that when you first pick up a paintbrush. There's a lot more to it beyond expressing yourself."

Brents, who lives in Memorial, came to the group after leaving his career as an architect and urban planner to pursue his love for painting.

Now Brents is curating as his third exhibit for Artists Alive and Well in the organization's first open invitational, juried exhibition. Artists age 18 and older from throughout the United States are welcome to enter.

The exhibit will provide cash prizes for the first-, second- and third-place winners, which will be announced during the opening reception, 6-8 p.m., Monday, Jan. 14.

The exhibit will run through March 1 in the upper concourse at 1600 Smith St., formerly Continental Center I.

President Suzanne Buckland, a Spring Branch-area resident, estimates Artists Alive and Well has about 54 members. The group is compiling a yearbook of sorts that showcases their work. It will serve as a tool to group leaders as they line up venues for exhibitions.

"It will show people what our members can do," said Buckland, who specializes in oil painting on canvas.

The group has exhibited at galleries, but also at an eclectic mix of Houston businesses.

"Our goal is to get our art work out there for people to see who don't necessarily go to galleries," Buckland said.

Photographer Sally Stubbs was among the artists Summers Posey recruited when she started organizing Artists Alive and Well. She played a large role in identifying venues willing to show members' work.

"I have a corporate background, and it allowed me to parlay that experience into approaching building management firms," said Stubbs, an Uptown resident who has a studio at Winter Street Studios, 2101 Winter St.

It was rewarding, Stubbs said, to be able to use her presentation skills to further her career and the careers of others.

"It's been fun, too, to help some of the less experienced artists, encourage them and support them, then start seeing their successes," she said.

"Brand new artists who've never exhibited anywhere, they don't know how to start, even the basics of wiring a picture frame," she said. "We're just trying to show them how to do things on a very practical level and the level of professionalism they really need as an artist."

The group has an exhibit at Affaire D'Art. 2227 Postoffice St. in Galveston, through Dec. 2.

AAW also has been working with The Southern Artists Foundation to paint a mural at The Mullett, a graffiti and art space 10902 Kingspoint Road near Almeda Mall.

Artists Alive and Well meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of the Month in space provided by the Hamptons at Pinegate, a retirement community at 2121 Pinegate, off East T.C. Jester and Loop 610. The group will not have a regular meeting in December.